Combine harvesters are used to harvest crops from agriculturally cultivated plants, which are picked up by means of a harvesting attachment and are conveyed by feederhouses (also known as “inclined conveyor assemblies”) into the actual combine harvester. There, the plants are threshed and the grain is cleaned. An inclined conveyor comprises a housing, in which an endless conveyor, with several pulling means arranged laterally next to one another, runs around a lower deflection roller and an upper inclined conveyor shaft, and conveys the material from below upward into the combine harvester. The endless conveyor comprises conveyor slats, which are fastened on two pulling means so as to convey the material.
Common inclined conveyors are equipped with chains that are used as pulling means, which work together with sprockets, which can be welded on the driven upper inclined conveyor shaft or fastened in some other way (especially in a detachable manner). As a result of the relatively large torques to be transferred, welded conveyors with hollow shafts have already been used as an upper inclined conveyor shaft; on the drive side (lying on the right in the movement direction), a shaft stub made of solid material is welded on (Part Number AZ49359 for Combine harvester Model Nos. 2054, 2056, 2058 of the Applicant), whereas on the other side, a flange of an end axle stub is screwed on the conveyor shaft, and the sprockets for driving the conveyor chains used as the pulling means are welded on the hollow shaft. The support of the conveyor shafts in the inclined conveyor housing is undertaken there on both ends by ball bearing arrangements, which are pushed onto the shaft and axle stubs from the outside. A support housing is set on the ball bearing arrangement; it, in turn, is screwed on the housing of the inclined conveyor. A sprocket or a belt pulley is fastened on the drive side of the conveyor shaft for the drive; it is connected with a drive train of the combine harvester by means of a chain or a belt.
The two part-construction of the conveyor shaft with the screwed-on axle stub is used so as to make possible the incorporation of the conveyor shaft into the inclined conveyor housing, in that the actual inclined conveyor shaft is first inserted into the housing such that the shaft stub projects through the housing to the outside. Then, the axle stub is inserted and screwed on the conveyor shaft, whereupon, from the outside of the housing, the ball bearing arrangements are shoved onto the axle and shaft stubs and fastened there so they cannot be moved axially, and finally, the support housing is screwed on the housing. This two-part construction of the conveyor shaft is relatively expensive.
The goal of the present invention is to make available improved inclined conveyors that do not have the aforementioned disadvantages or have them to a reduced extent.